


Regium

by teamchaosprez



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Ambiguously Medieval Time Period, Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fake Kidnapping, First Meetings, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Magic, Multi, Slow Burn, Team as Family, akira being a glorious and dramatique bastard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25502776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: Prince Goro Akechi and noblewoman Haru Okumura were arranged to be married, but a wrench is thrown in their fathers' plans when a mysterious band of thieves led by Akira Kurusu destroy a chandelier and kidnap Haru despite the best efforts of Goro and royal guard captain Makoto Niijima.Regular updates will resume in mid to late December. Sporadic updates every few weeks until then.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Niijima Makoto/Okumura Haru
Comments: 64
Kudos: 257





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> first attempt at a long fic in a hot minute and it's also two in the morning but hey i'm doing my best

A boy kneels in the dirt to the side of the road.

Food is scarce, especially in the late autumn like right now. His eyes are on the nearby bakery as he waits for someone to put out a pastry or something that he could snatch from the windowsill. He was a little too tired to efficiently use his magic, but if he  _ really _ concentrated he might even be able to send the baker away from the window to buy himself time to escape.

Aha. She puts a pie there. He waits a few seconds, watches her turn her back to the window, and makes a run to the building. It will not be the first pie stolen from a bakery window, and it will not be the last; this village is far from well managed and is not well protected.

And he cannot starve.

Once he’s reached the window of the bakery, he wastes little time in grabbing onto the food and then turning on his heel and making a run for it. He begins to think that he’s in the clear, and then…

He very nearly runs into a smartly dressed man. With wide eyes, he realizes that it’s a member of the king’s guard… and apparently a high ranking one, if the medals pinned to his front are anything to go by. The soldier looks at him with a sneer, as if he’s looking at a pile of waste and not a human.

It’s not the first time he’s been looked at like that, and he doesn’t think that it will be the last, but it still makes him self conscious. Makes his skin crawl.

“Stealing?” asks the soldier, as if he isn’t holding a pie he clearly didn’t pay for. He just stares, and the man shakes his head. “I’ve been sent by the king to pick up a street rat. Around fifteen or so, name starts with an A, kid of a whore. What’s your name, kid?”

That description sounds an awful lot like him, but kids like him are pretty easy to come by in this village. Still, he hesitates a few moments before answering.

“Goro Akechi.”

* * *

A girl hides where her mother instructed her to, ducked under her bed.

Her city has been coming under siege by the most powerful of the neighboring king’s soldiers and mages for the last several weeks. Every day there is a new attack; every day she has to hide herself away in her spot under the bed. Her mother is related to the royals of their country and her father is a man of great wealth; she wouldn’t stand a chance if someone caught sight of her.

Her mother died two weeks into the neighboring kingdom’s invasion of her homeland. It’s just been her and her father in the house since then; he won’t talk much to her other than to warn her when another attack is coming. She’s terribly lonely. She wonders when life will get back to normal.

She knows, deep down inside, that her country doesn’t stand a chance and that the cruel king will take over. That she might never know  _ normal _ again, at least not the normal she grew up with. Still, it’s comforting, imagining that one day she might be able to spend time with her friends again.

There’s an explosion down the road - a particularly powerful magical blast.

And then, there’s silence, and she remains still.

She doesn’t know how long she stays there. It could have been twenty minutes, it could have been three hours. Judging by how sore she’s becoming from the cramped positioning and uncomfortable floor, she wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been even longer.

Footsteps approach her window, and she realizes as she hears crunching glass that it must have broken during that last explosion. She cowers a little further under the bed.

Someone - a man in the uniform of the neighboring kingdom, ducks to look directly at her. She must look so frightened, so pitiful.

“It’s over,” he says, his voice eerily calm much like the air around them. “What’s your name?”

“H-Haru Okumura.”


	2. 01

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A party goes horribly awry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "more important question would you consider tackling someone "kidnapping" your arranged fiancee a meet cute" - me on discord at 2am

Being the illegitimate son of the king had never been a walk in the park.

Goro Akechi’s mother had been a prostitute in one of the poorer villages of Shido’s far-reaching kingdom. She struggled to take care of him for the first six years of his life, to teach him the skills he would need to know if he was to survive on his own in the world, but had never been able to take care of herself. He found her, dead, two weeks before his seventh birthday, and had been kicked from the brothel where they’d lived, and spent the next nine years on the streets.

He was taken, without much fanfare, to the capitol city shortly after turning fifteen. It turned out that the king heard rumors of a child living out in the rural village who might have been his. It turned out that he had blue blood flowing through his veins; Shido had begun facing pressure to produce an heir, and he was simply a convenient way to do that without much work on his father’s part, without having to go through the trouble of a royal wedding at the age of fifty.

Three years of teaching him about the ins and outs of royal life; three years of turning him from the scared kid off the streets into a properly vicious future king. Three years of pushing his natural magical abilities to the limits and throwing a life plan together - and now here he was. The “perfect” successor to Shido’s kingdom. A child most parents would be proud of.

Eighteen years old, trained into his role as a prince, forced to assassinate “enemies of the state” to prove his loyalty to his father. Perhaps most of them were innocent. He had learned to stop worrying about it and just focus on self preservation, on sucking it up and securing his future.

Perhaps, once he was securely on the throne, he could fix the issues that his father created for those less fortunate. Those like his mother. He might have to do terrible things now and he might have to do terrible things in the future, but in his mind it was all for the greater good.

At the end of his “training,” there was meant to be a party to introduce him to the kingdom and reveal the other half of Shido’s preparations surrounding the kingdom’s future - the noble girl to whom Goro was to enter an arranged marriage within the year. He had met her twice beforehand for rehearsals; her name was Haru Okumura, and she was the daughter of a wealthy and powerful figure in one of the recently obtained cities.

She was nice enough. Goro didn’t really have anything against her or her father. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about marrying her (or any woman for that matter,) though. It was for political gain and to make sure the consequences of an  _ unfortunate accident _ Haru’s father would soon make were lessened. He was sure that she felt about the same.

The party itself had wound up going smoothly; while there were whispers when Goro stepped out in front of the kingdom, introduced as the king’s son - why hadn’t they seen him anywhere before, some wondered. Perhaps luckily, few of the wealthy capitol city residents had ever visited the impoverished village where he had grown up, and those that might have would only have encountered him as a dirty and hungry child. He was unrecognized, or unremembered, his well-kempt appearance and fine white clothing offering cover - his smile like a mask behind which he could duck.

Perhaps it was because very little in his life had gone well up to this point, but it almost seemed like the whole affair was going  _ too _ well. Like something was bound to go wrong any second, and like the blame would inevitably be placed on him. Maybe his magic would go out of whack as a result of the stress. Or maybe he would just trip over something.

He realized as the night went on that this bad feeling about the night might not be anything but anxiety, and so he needed to walk away before it became a self fulfilling prophecy. Taking a look around the room, he noticed that Haru looked similarly anxious - he couldn’t help but wonder why, because she must have been much more familiar with occasions like this.

Then again, there probably weren’t many parties in which she was a major feature and a lot of the attention was on her. It crossed Goro’s mind, momentarily, that he probably should be a gentleman if this was the person he was supposed to marry - he might as well avoid alienating her before they were even stuck together. So he sighed softly, straightened out his jacket, and approached her.

“Excuse me, Haru,” he spoke up to get her attention as he offered his arm, keeping his voice light and pleasant and a smile on his face. “Would you like to take a walk with me and get some fresh air?”

She blinked at him before smiling and nodding slightly; “I would love to,” she replied, linking her arm with his and letting him lead her through the ballroom. They stuck to the side; anyone they approached parted and made way for the royal and his betrothed to get through. He wasn’t sure whether or not he liked the special treatment.

As they got to the garden and rounded a corner into some bushes, she withdrew her arm and he let his fall to his side with a sigh. They still weren’t fully comfortable with one another, but at the very least they didn’t feel the need to be so formal when subjects weren’t surrounding them.

“This is all very overwhelming,” she commented, her voice soft and a little nervous. “The party’s so crowded. It makes sense that it would be, but… it’s still a lot more people than I thought could fit in one room.” When he looked over, she was glancing back into the ballroom.

“You’ve never been to anything like this before?” he asked, a little surprised, and she shook her head, almost looking a little sad.

“No. Your father’s kingdom invaded my city a few weeks before I was supposed to be introduced to the rest of the nobility, and with all the fighting and my mother dying, going out and holding a fancy ball in my honor was far from everyone’s minds.”

Goro wasn’t sure why he felt a pang of guilt when she talked about it, given that he was just finding out that he had royal blood when her country was being assimilated; maybe it was because he knew that, sooner or later, he would inherit that legacy.

Just as he was opening his mouth to say something, he was distracted by a loud crash coming from the ballroom. Goro turned back, his eyes wide, to find that the party had devolved into chaos, people running out of the castle and shouting. His first thought wasn’t to get further away - it was to get closer.

Wide crimson eyes looked around, his shoulders tense; there were so many people moving around and so much noise surrounding him that it took him several seconds to register that the loud crashing noise had been the chandelier, cut from its chain above the ballroom and sent shattering to the ground. Broken glass was everywhere; people were bleeding.

Someone dropped down from the ceiling to stand atop the broken chandelier; it was hard to make out many of their features, their dark clothing blending in with the freshly dimmed room. Goro could only barely make out a messy mop of black hair, and it was only after they began to speak that he recognized them as a boy - same age as him, maybe a year or two younger, and yet with a voice that commanded so much attention, that carried with it such a presence, silenced most others.

“There is only one remaining member of our royal family, and she’s been reduced to nothing more than a pawn by your royalty to use and discard. Your king has mindlessly caused destruction and fought tooth and nail to secure as much power and land for himself. He left his son to be raised on the streets, only acknowledging his existence once it became convenient. He abuses and hurts others, and arranges to have them killed so that there are as few threats to his reign as possible. Do you really want to live under a man like that? Or will you take a stand and reclaim your power?”

As the boy finished his speech, there was a blast of magic surrounding the broken chandelier; those who still remained close by scattered and began their rush out of the ballroom again, and the thief jumped down from the fixture in order to begin running out of the castle, using his magic to part the crowd around him like the Red Sea.

It wasn’t until he was rushing past the prince that Goro registered his mention of Haru - it didn’t take much effort for him to put two and two together and realize that she was in danger.

Acting before he could have the chance to think, he lunged for the mage - his arms wrapped around the boy, and they went falling to the ground together. Fighting with others for food most of his life had taught him how to handle situations like this; his knees dug into the other boy’s thighs, his hands grabbing his wrists and holding them up over his head.

The impact against the ground must have knocked his foe’s white masquerade mask slightly askew, because it had been pushed a little further up on his face, shoving some of his messy hair out of the way. His eyes met the other’s, and he froze for just a second.

The boy’s eyes were dark and deep, framed by thick lashes as he stared up at him. Those eyes were so captivating, held so much mischief and intelligence that it genuinely nearly startled the prince; he kept his tight hold nonetheless, narrowing his glare.

“Are you planning to kidnap my fiancee?” he found it in himself to ask, and much to his surprise and fury, the pinned boy laughed at him.

“It’s honorable you’re more worried about her than your daddy’s chandelier, but I figured you’d be thanking me. I know neither of you really want to get married.”

“And how could you possibly know that?” Goro asked through gritted teeth; he wasn’t sure if he was angrier about the disrespect or the fact that this stranger, this  _ criminal, _ was so certain about his or Haru’s feelings - was so  _ correct _ about his and Haru’s feelings.

It didn’t help in the least when, instead of responding, the boy looked away, tilting his head to look up toward the garden. “Answer me,” the prince demanded, tightening his grip around his wrists and wishing  _ desperately _ that he had the means to grab his shoulders and shake him instead.

“It’s been a real treat getting to meet you, Your Highness,” he said instead of anything even  _ remotely _ close to the answers he was demanding, “but I think it’s time for me to make my leave. Please don’t worry about Princess Haru - I swear to you by the Thieves’ Code that no harm will come to her.”

Baffled, all Goro could think to say was, “Your code means nothing to me.”

“Sucks to be you then, I guess.”

Before the prince could formulate another response, something more sufficiently threatening, there was a blast of powerful dark magic from the boy underneath him and he was thrown off, landing on his back a few feet away from where they had been before. He was quick in scrambling to try and get to his feet and give chase, but before he could get up, the chains of the fallen chandelier had looped around his wrists and legs to trip him up again.

He just barely managed to get a glimpse of the boy, giving a cheeky little wave as he rushed out of the ballroom doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	3. 02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haru escapes from the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (most of) the thieves are here!

Haru was pretty sure her heart had never beat so fast in her entire life as she was slung over the shoulder of one of the masked Phantom Thieves and tugged along, hurrying out of the palace garden and toward a carriage waiting just outside the grounds. She was limp as a rag doll, keeping herself quiet and easy to carry as her kidnapper started making an escape with her in tow.

It wasn’t out of any sort of fear, though. She wasn’t scared of the mysterious masked Phantom Thieves; she knew that they wouldn’t hurt her and would try to keep without hurting anyone at all.

She’d been working with them for the better part of a year, after all.

The boy carrying her, in particular, was known for being quite loud and tough on the exterior but kind and gentle on the interior. Skull - or Ryuji Sakamoto, when his mask was off - was one of her closer friends on the team despite the difference in their exteriors, and she knew he wouldn’t hurt her on purpose.  _ Maybe _ some accidental bruising on the way out was to be expected, though, because there were enough people around them that  _ not _ running into a few people or items was impossible.

_ [Skull’s got Noir. You could make a quicker escape if you vault over the rose wall a few meters to your left, but it might call attention to you. There might be thorns there, too.] _

Oracle’s voice rang through Haru’s head clear as day - Futaba Sakura was her real name, and she had powerful magic that would allow her to analyze any area she was familiar with and communicate with anyone she’d touched in the last two days telepathically. She had to stay on the outside of most operations, but she was a little too sickly to run around or lift anything, so it was for the better.

_ [I checked the rose wall last time. There aren’t any thorns. Gardeners come through to remove any weeds from the premises and cut thorns from roses every evening. It’s quite disappointing, really, I know thorns and weeds may sometimes be dangerous, but that is ultimately the beauty of nature-] _

_ [Yeah, thanks, but can it, Inari. Go ahead and vault over the wall if you think it’ll be safe to make the move, Skull. If not, you’ve still got quite a bit of running to go.] _

_ [Got it!] _

Skull veered off to the side and got a hold of the rose bush, holding on tight and beginning to climb up toward freedom. He had to let go of Haru to grip tight, so she grabbed the back of his shirt and held on for dear life as he climbed up, up, up, and then swung his legs over and let go of the wall.

He landed on his feet and her stomach crashed against his shoulder, knocking the wind out of her lungs. “Shit,” Skull grumbled, and she could hear some faint strain in his voice. “Sorry for the rough landing, Noir. You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she wheezed. “Are you?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he waved his hand, waiting a moment before starting to run again. When he did, she noticed that he was favoring his right leg - the one that had been injured when he got in a disagreement with the previous king of the city he came from. Whether Shido was any better for it than Kamoshida or not, she couldn’t say; it had been invaded long before her city was.

She wanted to tell him to put her down and take a break, but they were still close enough to castle grounds that it would be a  _ terrible _ idea to do so. “Should we call someone for backup?” she asked him, a quiet whisper in his ear. “I think Panther was positioned in the garden.”

“Panther can’t carry you. We’ll be fine, it’s not too far from the carriage-”

Before Ryuji could finish his sentence, there was a loud bang just behind them and the runner went crashing to the ground. Haru fell on her side with a surprised squeak, too stunned for a moment to get up to her feet and barely able to look up.

She vaguely recognized the girl standing here as a member of Shido’s royal guard. “I won’t let you take Lady Haru,” she snapped, and punched at the air, causing another blast of magic that Ryuji was barely able to move to the side of.

Of  _ course _ \- this whole operation had been too smooth from the start, so it made sense for there to be an issue now. Another blast of magic as Ryuji was getting up sent him flying back a few feet, and as Haru moved to help him up and make sure he was alright, the guard grabbed onto her wrist.

“Come on, my lady, we should get you back to the palace where it’s safe. I’ll make sure none of those thieves can touch you.” A look back at her face, even through the mask, could tell Haru that she earnestly thought that she was in danger. That she was doing the right thing by “rescuing” her.

Not that Haru could blame her. This had been planned over the course of months, and the intent had always been to make it  _ look _ like a kidnapping. That would bring the most limited amount of shame possible to Goro - if his betrothed was kidnapped, that was a cause for pity, but if she ran off, the assumption would be that something was wrong with him.

She didn’t want to hurt the prince. He was just being dragged along by her father’s ambitions - just like she was. But if she was going to get out of here… she’d have to be a little honest.

“It’s okay, I don’t want to go back to the palace,” she tried to pull her hand free; “honestly, I asked them to crash the party and take me away. Please don’t take me back there.”

The guard blinked at her, apparently shocked, and shook her head. “I bet they asked you to say that, didn’t they? Come on, I need to make sure you’re safe.”

“No, they didn’t!” Haru protested again. Was it really that easy to believe that she would lie for the sake of malicious kidnappers? She supposed the guard didn’t know her very well and had no trust for a group of mysterious thieves, but still! She was so desperate to get away from the palace and the arranged marriage, so desperate to join the resistance she felt was the last connection she had to the individuality of herself and her former kingdom and her dead family members.

“Lady Haru, one of the thieves still on the property just completely destroyed a chandelier! People could have gotten hurt or worse! The prince was in the room!” What she didn’t know was that the chandelier had been part of the plan - had been specifically mentioned by Haru as a potential diversion so that Skull and Haru could slip away. She swallowed; there was no way she could admit to being complicit in that kind of thing without ruining her entire image.  _ She _ didn’t care much about it if she wasn’t going to be associated with the royal family, but… still.

She still wasn’t very good at using her magic yet. She’d just been learning how to control it when her mother, her main teacher, died - her father wasn’t magical and couldn’t tell her anything about it, and he claimed that she shouldn’t hone something she would never be using anyway. Skull was still recovering from the blow to his bad leg and the follow up attack behind her, though - she needed to do  _ something _ to protect him, give them a chance at getting away.

So Haru closed her eyes, concentrated, and the gerd was knocked back by a powerful blast of psychic magic, forced to release her wrist as she went stumbling back.

The noblewoman wasted little time in rushing to the side of her teammate, wrapping Skull’s arm around her shoulders and helping him stand up. “I’m sorry,” she spoke over her shoulder to the guard; “I really need to get out of here. It has nothing to do with the Phantom Thieves - it’s all because of me. I don’t feel comfortable getting married for the sake of my father’s political career… just promise me you won’t tell anyone about this, okay? I don’t want to bring any dishonor to Prince Goro.”

_ [Skull, Noir, are you guys doing okay? You should’ve gotten to the rendezvous point a few minutes ago. Do you need Panther or Mona to run over for backup?] _

The anxiety was so thick in Oracle’s inner voice that Haru inexplicably felt guilty about it.

_ [Nah, I think we can handle it. It’s just one guard.] _

She was more surprised, though, by how calm Skull’s inner voice was despite how contorted his face was in pain. He would definitely need some medical attention… she hoped Mona’s healing magic was charged up enough to fix his leg back to its previous state.

For what it was worth, the guard hadn’t made another move to grab at either Haru or Skull, the look on her face torn and almost confused. Haru didn’t really blame her - she had at least some idea of the loyalty the guards had to the royal family they protected. She really didn’t want to have to hurt this guard, though, so she was more inclined to be relieved than anything else.

“Please? Just let us go?” she asked again, her voice much softer.

The guard hesitated, and then slowly nodded. “At least let me escort you to wherever you’re meeting the rest of your team. Your friend doesn’t look like he can make it much further.” Her voice was much more genuine and apparently earnest than Haru had expected. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say or do; she was shocked.

She wasn’t the naive and sheltered noble that she was three years ago, though. She knew that she couldn’t trust someone who had just been trying to grab her and drag her into an arranged marriage two minutes ago, no matter how much she wanted to think she could.

“I hope you understand why we can’t do that,” she responded, keeping an eye on the guard’s hands to make sure she wasn’t going to hit another blast of magic toward Haru and Skull. She  _ really _ didn’t think he could handle another hit like this, and she was inexperienced in combat as of yet.

She could practically  _ feel _ the hesitation radiating off of the guard, but after what seemed like an eternity, she nodded and took a step back, her hands up. “I’ll tell them that he took me down,” she agreed, gesturing to Skull with a small nod. “Take care of yourself, though, and stay in hiding for a while. King Shido and Sir Okumura are going to have a manhunt looking for you and the thieves for a long time, I’d bet, and that won’t end well for any of you.”

Relief washed over Haru’s body. “Thank you,” she breathed out, and took a few steps backward, tugging Skull along with her.

“Nothin’s gonna happen to her as long as she’s got us. We’ll be careful,” Skull affirmed, and the two thieves turned around and started hurrying toward the edge of the garden. They kept checking over their shoulders to make sure that the guard wasn’t following them. True to her word, she stayed where they left her until they turned a few corners and rushed over to the carriage where Oracle and the others were waiting.

Panther - a girl, Ann Takamaki, from Ryuji’s former kingdom who refused to explain why she became a thief - and Fox - a boy, Yusuke Kitagawa, that was once the prince of another neighboring kingdom - were quick to get up and rush to Skull’s side to help him into the back of the carriage. Mona - a cat named Morgana that, as far as Haru knew, was the familiar of their leader - hopped up onto his lap. She let out a long sigh and collapsed into her own seat, resting her head back.

“Jeeze, Skull, you can’t even get through one mission without getting hurt again? This should have been easy for you!” Mona scolded him, but Haru could hear the relief in his voice at seeing both of them get back safe. Even with her eyes closed, she could sense the calming energy of the cat’s healing magic as he took care of Skull’s injuries.

Panther was quick in climbing to her seat next to Haru; “You doing okay?” she asked, her voice soft and concerned, and Haru nodded. The other girl must have noticed how tired she was, because she was quick to stop talking and check her over for injuries. “We’re just waiting for Joker now.”

Joker - real name Akira Kurusu - had the most mysterious past of all of them. All anyone was really clear about was that, presently, he was the founder of the Phantom Thieves that fought back against corrupt royalty and nobility. He was a powerful magic user and a charismatic leader, and even though he wasn’t even the oldest among them, all of the thieves looked up to him.

It wasn’t very long before Oracle gasped out a “He’s here!” and everyone rushed into their own respective seats, ready when the leader took his spot at the driver’s seat of the carriage.

“Alright, let’s get out of here,” he grinned back at the team, a wide grin on his face as his hand rested against the front of the carriage and his magic lifted them up. It was only when they started rushing away from the palace that it hit Haru that she was  _ safe, _ at least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	4. 03

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro is called into the throne room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lots and lots of introspection in this one folks. say hello to shido

Goro  _ hated _ being in the throne room.

It wasn’t that it was an unpleasant place to be. It was well decorated, one of the best maintained rooms in the castle - and that was impressive, considering how much of a perfectionist Shido could be. The lighting was nice, the temperature pleasant, the color scheme might have been a deeply grating combination of white, gold, and red but it wasn’t the  _ most _ garish thing Goro had ever seen.

No, it was the man in the throne that made this room the worst one to be.

Shido glared at him as the guards that brought him here bowed and dispersed, running off so that they could turn the other cheek to the shadier goings on of the royal family. So that, if Shido were ever to be tried for war crimes, they could play dumb, play innocent.

The more you tell someone, the more they can go on to spill to investigators, after all. Shido didn’t want to risk that level of betrayal; he didn’t want anyone but those who  _ need to know _ learning about Goro’s black magic and how he was being instructed to use it. It all made sense - but the prince couldn’t help but wish his father was a  _ little bit _ stupider.

Maybe he could take him out early if that was the case… but as it was, King Shido was the picture of health and had tried hard to disguise anything that could be used as evidence against him.

Goro grit his teeth and rose from his position on his knees, brushing off his pants before looking to his father with his hands clasped together in front of him. The king stayed where he was, and the prince couldn’t help but feel a little anxiety with the look he was being given.

Surely he wouldn’t kill his only heir? He’d never bothered to get married and didn’t plan on doing it anytime soon. He  _ needed _ Goro to carry on his legacy and run the kingdom after he was gone. The prince had to keep himself from biting his lip; if he was careless enough to get  _ one _ small town sex worker pregnant, it was likely he was careless enough to leave more ruined lives and bastard children in his wake. Perhaps he was just the oldest when he was discovered - the most convenient to bring home and turn into the perfect successor. Maybe he  _ was _ disposable.

“We look significantly weaker in the eyes of my subjects now, Akechi,” the king spoke, his voice calm and collected. That somehow made Goro even more nervous than if he’d started yelling and carrying on about the thieves. “The party should have been simple. Be pleasant to the commoners around you, show off the etiquette you had so many expensive lessons about, do a few slow dances with the Okumura girl to sell the future of the kingdom. It was a disaster; Okumura is missing and her father is beside himself, the nobility is all worried about these so-called ‘Phantom Thieves,’ and the future of this bloodline is in jeopardy because no girl will want to marry you for fear of being kidnapped.”

“I don’t understand why you’re putting the blame for the incident on me, Your Highness.” Talking back to Shido was never a good idea, but Goro couldn’t help but get a little defensive. “With the commotion they caused, there was nothing I could have done. Their leader was using dark magic, and you’ve instructed me very clearly not to make my abilities known to the public.”

“You should have stayed by Okumura’s side and made sure nobody was able to grab her. You should have been able to use a  _ little _ magic to keep the thief from fleeing.”

Goro’s cheeks flushed a bright pink - from shame, or fury, he wasn’t sure, but either way, he looked away from his father. Shido sighed, and for a moment there was quiet.

“One of the new guards was the last to see the princess and thieves. She said that they went into the woods behind the castle. You’ll be working with her to retrieve Okumura and bring her back home before too many rumors can spread.”

Working with one of the guards? He was more than capable of searching for a missing girl himself, and would be even faster without someone who was barely past their training with more experienced guards holding him down. He was sure that saying anything to that effect would just make Shido angrier, though; he would just be reminded of tonight’s failure.

“Please, tell me about her.” If he was going to be stuck in a situation like this, he might as well try to formulate a plan beforehand as well as he could. Going in blind would be a disaster.

“Her name is Makoto Niijima,” came Shido’s response without much hesitation. “Her older sister has been captain of the palace guard for some time despite her young age. She’s inexperienced, but a powerful user of Nuclear magic and talented at hand to hand combat. She’ll be a good asset… she’s likely more reliable than you.” That last dig was somewhat unnecessary, but Goro felt he’d snapped back enough, so he just clenched his teeth and breathed out through his nose.

“All right,” he replied nonetheless, his voice a little cold and a pleasant smile plastered on his face. “I assume we’re going to start combing through the woods in the morning? It’s getting quite late, you know, and it’s difficult to control my magic after a busy and exhausting day like this.”

Yes, he was worried for Haru. He hoped that the thief leader would stay true to his word and not allow any harm to come to her - but he really was beat down, and still sore from being pinned against broken glass. There was no way he could get any decent work done now, and he knew it - and he was determined to put at least a little bit of an inconvenience on his father.

There was a moment of silence, and Shido sighed.

“Alright,” the king nodded, and got up off his throne. He looked like he wanted to slap Goro, but he didn’t. “Get rest and practice tonight. I’ll have word sent to Niijima as well. Failure will not be accepted here, Akechi. You’d do best to understand that.”

Goro grit his teeth and nodded. Of course. Failure had never been an option; not when he was fighting the other kids on the street for food and not when he was sent out by his father to kill someone and prove his loyalty. This was no different - he was just retrieving someone instead of snuffing out a life this time. Shido walked past him and into the hallway that led to his quarters, and the prince was left standing in the middle of the throne room by himself.

Once he heard the door slam, he sighed and his shoulders fell slightly. He was exhausted; socializing at the party had been tiring, the events that ended the party had been tiring, the stress of knowing Haru had been kidnapped and he hadn’t been able to save her was tiring, and having yet more of Shido’s expectations on his shoulders was tiring. He knew, in the back of his mind, that there was no way anyone could be expected to keep any of this stress up.

He had no choice, though. It was this or be locked away in the dungeon for knowing too much. Shido didn’t believe in breaks - Goro wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t think stress existed at all.

With a sigh, the prince approached the throne and put his hand against the back of it. Although the kingdom’s expansion had been a new development after Shido took over the throne, this bloodline had still had power for a few generations. Not much could be found in the library about the family’s history, but some of Goro’s teachers were older and had mentioned, in hushed voices, that the military had once primarily been for defense, that both Shido’s father and grandfather had been kind men who wanted the best for their subjects. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine that - couldn’t imagine good, kind kings producing a person like Shido - selfish, depraved, angry, abusive.

His hand traced down the complex carvings on the back of the chair, a thoughtful sigh escaping the prince. Truthfully, even with the education that had been strung together for him, he had no idea about his future. No idea how he would handle being king after Shido was gone.

He wondered if his father had always wanted to go through with invasion after invasion.

He wondered what his mother would think if she saw him like this. He wondered if she would be glad he’d ended up in a life that she could ever even dream of giving him - or if she would be horrified that he was so willing to go along with whatever Shido said, so quick to participate in his crimes.

Goro didn’t remember her very well. He doubted he could figure out what she would say.

The prince sighed, and removed his hand from the throne. He crossed his arms over his chest tightly, as if trying to hold himself, and walked quickly out of the throne room and into another hall toward his room. He didn’t want to keep suffocating himself under his thoughts about his parents, the ancestors he wasn’t allowed to feel connected to - and he didn’t want to crush himself under thoughts about his future. What mattered was here, now; making sure he  _ could _ have a future at all.

As he walked down the hall, his mind wandered to the thief from the party. To his dark eyes, full of intelligence and mischief. To the way he could work together with whoever he was cooperating with well enough that they could get Haru out of the palace grounds without much trouble.

He seemed so confident, so free - not alone. Everything Goro wasn’t and couldn’t have. Jealousy blossomed in his chest and frustration with it. He was remarkably smart, he was a prince, he was the future of this kingdom, and some lowly thief had it together better than him.

Goro shoved open the door to his bedroom and slammed it shut behind him, all but collapsing face first onto his bed with a heavy sigh and a groan. He lifted his hand slightly and, with a wave, the candles around his room went out to leave him in darkness; the hand fell to bunch up some of his hair in his fist, and he closed his eyes. He knew that he was tired enough to fall asleep, but his mind was working too quickly for that to be a reasonable possibility.

He remembered, briefly, overhearing some nobles complaining about a few heirlooms and belongings being stolen; threatening letters left behind in parlours and on pianos detailing the crimes that some Phantom Thieves wanted to expose. Goro hadn’t heard of any hard hitting scandals or news - but he  _ was _ normally busy, separated from the public and working hard. He had no idea what peasants talked about anymore, really, and what he knew about noble gossip was limited to what he could eavesdrop on when people walked past his room or the classroom, or when he had to carry out an assassination and he was lying in wait for his target to let their guard down.

The people who crashed the party, the boy he tackled… they must have been those so-called Phantom Thieves. There was a flare of annoyance as Goro thought more about it; there should have been more caution, more security on his father’s part of they were prominent enough to be so bold.

His mind wandered to the thief’s eyes again without really meaning to. Goro covered his face with his pillow and let out a quiet little groan.

He  _ really _ was not looking forward to this mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	5. 04

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Phantom Thieves catch a moment of rest, and Haru has time to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more introspection!!! and sojiro!

The Phantom Thieves lived in the nearest city to Shido’s castle, but he was so removed from the common people of his kingdom that it took nearly an hour to ride there nonetheless when the path was clear. The path they took from the castle was nowhere near clear.

They couldn’t take the main bridge from the island the castle stood on, none of them particularly wanting to risk getting caught by the guards that had definitely dispersed to watch all the exits. There was one place that most people would never even dare touch - the woods behind the castle that gave way to an incredibly steep cliff’s edge, a sheer drop down to the water below. It was a risky move when Akira could barely hold them more than a foot above solid ground.

It was a team effort. Haru had never focused so hard on her psychokinesis in her life as she did when she was struggling to keep them from plummeting fast enough to break the carriage in the water, and Yusuke had to create a trail of ice from where they landed to the mainland. It wasn’t quite as smooth going, but the ice was solid enough for Akira to take full control of the vehicle again.

“Should we drive along the coast until we find somewhere we’re familiar with?” Ann asked, needing to lean against Haru’s legs in order to come into contact with the thief in the front seat. Normally, it probably wouldn’t bother her, but her head was starting to hurt as a result of the psychokinetic strain and her body was sore from moving around and falling to the ground so much.

“Yeah, that would probably be the best idea,” Akira replied with a nod, and moved the carriage so that it was just barely concealed by the tall grass around them before driving forward.

With the exception of a few directions from Futaba as they moved forward, the rest of the ride was mostly spent quietly. None of them had much energy after making a run for it… and as Haru leaned over the side of the carriage a little, she realized that Akira and Futaba would probably need as much energy as they could recover once they got back to the city.

* * *

They took the backroads as they returned to the tavern that served as their base to avoid drawing attention, and nearly the moment they were on the property, Akira released the magic that held the cart up and it crashed to the ground. It still held together, but it had definitely seen better days.

The owner of the inn - and adoptive father of Futaba and Akira - rushed out mere moments after they hit the ground, looking annoyed. Haru knew him well enough after a few meetings that she could assume that it was meant to mask how worried he’d been, if the slightly wavering undertone of his voice was anything to go by. “You were supposed to be back hours ago. What the hell did you do to the carriage?” he spoke up as he hurried over, wasting little time in helping Futaba step down.

He must have noticed how tired Haru was, because he hurried over to help support her weight. She appreciated it more than she could probably reasonably describe.

“We  _ might _ have had to take a dive off of a cliff,” Futaba told him, her voice rather sheepish. “It’s okay, though! We didn’t touch the water at all, and Yusuke made sure there was no risk of that even happening. There were also some pretty sharp turns in the woods on the way into town, but we took clear routes when we could! The damage isn’t that bad!”

“I hope it’s not that bad, because you and Akira are going to be fixing it.” Sojiro gave his daughter a stern glare as he opened the tavern door and helped Haru sit down at one of the booths. It was only a few seconds before the rest of their little group was sitting around her, Ryuji next to her - almost as if he was protecting her. She was tired, didn’t want to be in the open very much, so she appreciated it.

“Okay, okay, we’ll get started on it tomorrow,” Akira waved his hand, sounding and looking like he hadn’t slept in months. Haru knew he wouldn’t be doing much of anything tomorrow - he had more of a tendency to brush off how tired he was and keep working through the pain than all the rest of them combined (a genuinely impressive feat given how every member of their group was incredibly stubborn and rarely knew when to quit,) but she’d never seen him drain so much of his power in one day.

She glanced out the window. The sky was turning pink and purple - the sun was starting to set.

It was then that Haru realized that she didn’t have a home to return to anymore.

A kidnapped noblewoman couldn’t exactly waltz into her father’s estate like nothing happened, after all. She’d have to refrain from going out in public without a mask covering her eyes for a while. She didn’t know where to go or what to do.

“You know, that Yoshizawa girl has come by at least ten times today asking if I know how you guys are doing. One of you needs to go visit the church and tell her and Maruki you’re doing fine.”

“We can send Morgana tonight, and visit her in the morning.”

The exhaustion must have started showing on her face, because Akira took notice - of course Akira was the one to see it, he saw everything. “Hey, Boss, is it alright if Haru stays with us for a little while? She can’t exactly… go home right now.”

Sojiro blinked at him; “Well, yeah, I kind of assumed that would be the case. Did you guys somehow get this far without talking about what she’d do after getting fake kidnapped?”

Silence, and Sojiro sighed heavily before moving over to the kitchen. Haru could hear pots and pans moving around moments later; she guessed he must have decided to make some food despite being annoyed. He acted hard and strict, but he actually cared very much for his adopted children and their friends - something Haru really appreciated about him. They must have caused him so much trouble and stress on a daily basis, and yet he still did his best to help them and look out for them.

Despite her exhaustion, the memory of running from the guard rang in her mind. She didn’t recognize her - she must have been new to the job… and yet Haru didn’t doubt that she would have caught them if not for being talked out of it. The noble didn’t have a fantastic handle on her powers just yet and probably couldn’t fight her off, especially not with an injured Ryuji - there was no way she could ever even think about leaving him behind after all he’d done for her.

Speaking of whom…

“How’s your leg doing?” she asked him in a hushed voice - he didn’t like talking about it when he got injured, not wanting to seem pathetic or pitiable, but the chatter of Futaba, Ann, and Morgana across the table would probably prevent the question from being heard by anyone but the two of them.

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry too much about it,” he replied - so he  _ was _ capable of being a little more quiet. “I can go see the doctor later. I don’t wanna drag everyone down when we’re all happy about gettin’ you out of a shitty situation, ‘specially when we’re already tired.”

He thought too much about what would make everyone happy and not enough about what he needed, but it wasn’t like Haru had much of any room to talk about that. She  _ had _ gone along with an arranged marriage her father put together for his own political gain up until she met Morgana and had it pointed out to her that the situation, while not uncommon for her social standing, was a little messed up.

She wondered how her father was doing. If he would be punished for her decisions. If he was worried about her - honestly, he probably wasn’t, he’d only seen her as a tool to get ahead in life since her mother died, but she still liked to think there was a part of him that still cared about her as a daughter.

Really, Haru felt terribly guilty for all the trouble she must have caused him by running off on him. They had staged it to look like she was kidnapped so that as little blame for the situation would fall on him as possible, and she was pretty sure that Goro hadn’t particularly wanted to get married either, but surely she could have just stuck it out for a while?

There wasn’t much of a point in thinking about how much she might regret it for now. It wasn’t like she could go back in time and stop herself.

Haru wondered if the last guard that had rushed after them would be punished. She wondered if she was going to be alright - if she would bear the weight of Haru’s decisions. Guilt settled over her chest, a crushing weight that threatened to suffocate her. She knew that King Shido could be ruthless toward those that crossed him or even caused him the slightest inconvenience - whispers had existed about it among the nobility for years, and he  _ had _ taken over most of the kingdoms surrounding his initial land over the course of only the last ten years since taking the throne over from his father. The girl that let her go could be in some serious danger - if not tonight, then definitely when she refused to go back.

“You look tired, Haru,” Akira addressed her directly, ripping her out of her thoughts rather unceremoniously. Damn him and his observation skills. “Is something wrong, or is it just from all the running around and magic using?”

She hesitated. He really did look worse for wear than she did, so she would feel bad about saying anything before they all had the chance to rest and recover, but…

Maybe… they could help her in some way.

“When Ryuji and I were running away from the castle, there was a guard that came after us. She was stronger than us and she was the one that hurt his leg, but when I told her what was going on she agreed to let us go. I know for a fact she didn’t follow us, we would have noticed her in the water.” She fiddled with a loose thread on her skirt under the table. Maybe it was reckless of them to not fight her off or make sure she couldn’t watch, but… there wasn’t much she could have done there.

“That’s good then, right? That means there’s  _ someone _ decent in the castle,” Ann chimed in, and before Haru could say much of anything Akira was shaking his head.

“No, I get where she’s coming from. Shido’s not exactly known for his merciful habits, and if he finds out that guard was even the last one to see them go, she should be in some serious trouble.” He leaned against the opposite side of the booth, looking deep in thought. “To tell you the truth, I’m a little worried about Shido’s son. He tried to stop me on the way out after I made that speech, and if he was literally just brought into the royal court, I could see his reveal party being sort of a disaster not going well for him at all…”

“Are you suggesting that we return to the castle to kidnap two people in actuality?” Yusuke asked; “I don’t see that going as smoothly, given that they didn’t ask for us to do this like Haru did.”

“No.” Akira shook his head. “I’m just saying that, maybe, we should find a way into the castle again and see if we can have a talk with them. Offer them a place to go.”

“Not immediately, I hope?”

“No, of course not. We recover, get checked out for our limited injuries, and plan something out for a week or two from now when our energy is back up.”

“And if they refuse?”

A pause. “Then at least we can say we tried.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks so much for reading, please kudos/comment if you enjoyed!


	6. 05

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Goro team up to look for Haru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> investigation work? investigation work

Goro had worked with Sae Niijima several times. She was one of the more trusted members of the royal guard - she didn’t care as much about  _ morals _ as she did about  _ getting ahead _ and supporting herself and her sister, so it would probably be difficult to get around working with her at some point. Not to say she was completely without a moral backbone… she just tended to ignore it, turn the other cheek and focus more on doing her job than on anything else.

She didn’t ask many questions and put her skills and intelligent to use just doing her job. It made her a useful asset, though Goro had to wonder what had happened to her to make her that way.

He was  _ aware of _ her younger sister, knowing that a majority of the reason she dealt with long hard hours was so that she could take care of her and support her under the exceedingly high cost of living in the capitol city. Goro had never met her until now, though; he didn’t know much about Sae’s personal life and she didn’t know much about his, an arrangement he was rather satisfied with.

Makoto Niijima looked rather nervous and fidgety. He knew that, if she was a member of the royal guard, she must have been strong and smart enough to make it through training, but he worried that the anxious energy she was putting out would make it difficult to get past  _ any _ mission with her, let alone an important one like this. No matter - Shido wanted them to work together, so they would have to learn to work together. Any disobedience would result in a punishment neither of them wanted.

He was inclined to believe that she was just socially awkward, and that hopefully they could just find Haru - or a lead to get to her - somehow, some way. The woods behind the castle were thick and difficult to traverse; anything and everything that went into them often got lost. Everything that could have been left behind got lost under the underbrush as well.

Goro wondered if the woods were enchanted, honestly; to make sure that nothing that ran into the obvious way out of the castle grounds would live to see the other side. He had no idea either way, and he doubted Makoto would know any better than him, so he wouldn’t bother asking for now.

“Do you know what’s on the other side of these woods, Niijima?” he asked, looking around.

“It’s a really steep cliff that goes directly into the ocean. Nobody could get jump off and survive.”

“They must still be in the woods somewhere, then. We had lots of guards all over the place last night… someone would have caught them trying to get away from the castle.” Goro had another look around the woods, and this time it didn’t take him very long to notice something odd.

There was a relatively small tree, knocked over and splintered and facing some more destroyed underbrush. He rushed over, looked down the path of flattened greenery. “It looks like we have a lead,” he commented and looked back at Makoto. “Let’s follow where this goes. Did you know they had a getaway vehicle? Any idea what it looked like?”

“No… it must have been hidden or in an area where there weren’t any guards at the start of the party. Judging from the markings it made, though, I think it might have been a carriage with the wheels removed? The area of the flattened plants would suggest that, anyway, and these scratch marks…”

“If there weren’t any wheels, it must have been powered by magic. Their leader knew dark magic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all mages in some capacity.” Haru had magic capabilities too, he knew, but she was out of practice and not terribly strong as a result. It wouldn’t have been terribly difficult to use magic to keep her complacent and in place. Now that he was walking over the tracks left by the carriage, it wasn’t terribly difficult to make his way through the forest; Makoto was silent for most of the walk over, something he didn’t think to comment on.

The path led to the edge of a cliff, which Goro very nearly walked off of before he caught himself and backed away. Just as promised, a look down told the prince that the drop led right into the sea surrounding the castle. If they went down, they were probably dead, something that made an annoyed groan leave Goro. He doubted they would jump if they weren’t being chased, and it looked like only he and Makoto had come down this path since the carriage. Either they were  _ really _ stupid or faked their own deaths… either matter would be  _ incredibly _ annoying.

As he was ready to give up on looking for signs of life… something caught his eye.

“Niijima, does that look like ice to you?” 

She came up to the edge of the cliff next to him and looked down in turn. He couldn’t tell, but it looked like she was tense. “It’s not exactly uncommon for ice to be in the water here, Prince Akechi.”

“In  _ June _ ?”

Makoto shrugged, looking uncomfortable. She was hiding something - Goro was sure of it. Slowly, he approached her, and she took a step back. “Look… I don’t think we should be looking for the thieves or Lady Haru. Maybe we should just leave it alone.”

_ That _ was surprising. He thought for sure that she was the type to take her job seriously… especially when someone’s life was on the line. “We have no idea what they could be doing with Okumura. She’s probably not safe right now. We need to find out where they took her as soon as possible. Or would you rather have her blood on our hands?”

The guard shifted uncomfortably and looked away, and went quiet for a moment. Goro could feel his frustration flare up.

“Okay, to be honest with you, I  _ was _ the last one to see the thieves and Lady Haru. That was because… I let them escape.”

Oh, now it was  _ fury _ that was boiling up in him. “You did  _ what _ ?” he snapped, his hand tightening around the handle of the sword on his hip. He wouldn’t hurt her, there was no reason to, but it had been a while since he had been this angry. “How could you have been so careless? How could you have been so… so _ cruel _ ? Who sees someone they were sworn to protect being kidnapped and then just doesn’t stop it? If she dies, it will have been very close to your fault!”

“I let them go because she asked me to!” Makoto replied; her voice was getting a little irritated too, and out of the corner of his eye Goro could see that she was clenching her fist. “She said she doesn’t want to get married to you for her father’s political gain, and that she was a part of the planning to leave the castle! The person she was with was injured, and she kept fighting back against me trying to take her back to the palace. So please, can’t we just let her go?”

That… was not any less frustrating, but Goro had to admit that it made sense. It was generally accepted between himself and Haru that neither of them was interested in the other in a romantic or sexual sense, and that they were going along with the marriage for convenience’s sake. He didn’t have hurt feelings over it, and he had gone to the palace for the first time expecting an arrangement like this in the future. Still, the fact that she would just run off instead of talking to him about it when they could figure something out together? It wasn’t like they  _ had _ to remain together after outliving their fathers.

… He didn’t blame her. He didn’t blame anyone she asked to take her, either; whoever they were, they probably just wanted to help their friend. If nothing else, it did put him a little at ease, let him know that, at least on some level, she was safe. Assuming she had been telling the truth and there was complete honesty among her and the thieves beforehand, anyway, but he didn’t have any evidence to the contrary.

Still - he was frustrated with Makoto for even letting the escape happen. Just because he understood why Haru would want to make a run for it didn’t mean he was  _ happy _ about it.

“You understand that, if the king finds out about any of that, he will have us both tortured or executed, right?” Goro asked, slowly turning away from her and to look toward the water again. “He already has hundreds of knights scouring everywhere they can reach for her and her kidnappers. It’s only a matter of time until he finds something out, and it wouldn’t be difficult to trace this back to you. Not to mention he would begin blaming her wanting to leave on me.” Even thinking about it was exhausting. She looked a little paler by the time he was done talking.

He was hesitant to call her decision a mistake, because he knew her heart was in the right place, but… he  _ did _ think it was a rather uneducated choice.

“The ice is too melted for us to be able to follow the path that it would have made.” If only he hadn’t taken the night off to rest, maybe he would have been able to follow this lead. “But we can assume that they were heading for the woods on the other side. We should try and head there first.”

He examined the side of the cliff for places to hold on, and pulled a knife out of his pocket. He could scale it and swim across, he was pretty sure - the water around the castle didn’t start getting really choppy and dangerous until either bad weather or evening hit, and the other side wasn’t terribly far away. Makoto might not be able to follow him, but all that was on his mind was getting across quickly.

He held onto the edge of the cliff with his hands and swung his legs over the side, finding purchase with his feet pretty quickly. It was a long way down, but he could do it. Before he could even make a move to descend, though, the knight had grabbed onto his wrists.

“No, don’t.” She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous to go down that way. The capitol city isn’t very far from here, and the woods on that side lead there, too. There’s not another town accessible from those woods for dozens of miles. Let’s go there, look and ask around, and if we can’t find anything we’ll travel over that way. Even if you don’t fall from the cliff or drown on the way over, you could get lost… we don’t know for sure if there are any tracks across the water.”

So little faith in him. He understood her reasoning, though, so he sighed and pulled himself back up. With a quick dusting off of his suit, he sighed and nodded. At least she was willing to go along with him on his search… he could only hope, for her sake, that she didn’t plan on throwing him off.

“How far away is the city by foot, do you think?”

“It’s almost an hour by carriage, so it would take several hours to walk there at best, so we probably shouldn’t do that.” Makoto looked around; Goro was pretty sure that it would be a  _ massive _ pain to go around looking for horses that weren’t in use. “We could try and mimic them and power one of the empty carriages with magic. Do you think your father would notice us being gone for a few days?”

“To be honest, I’m pretty sure that he wants us out of his sight for a while. Someone will see us in the capitol and hear what we’re asking about, and report that back.”

Makoto nodded, and they rushed for an empty vehicle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!!! please kudos/comment if you enjoyed!


	7. 06

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Sumire appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the lack of updates the last couple of weeks! i had a small mental breakdown and have just been trying to relax and feel better ever since, but i should be good to keep on trying to update once a week or so within reason. my semester's started back up but it isn't looking TOO bad so far. thank you so much for your patience.

Haru wasn’t a very religious person. Any part of her that had an inclination to pray and worship was killed along with her mother and had only been slaughtered further by the way her father used her to further his own wishes. However, she couldn’t deny that the church - not very far from the Sakura family’s tavern and easy to sneak to with a hood and a hidden face - was a very peaceful and relaxing place to be. She thought it might have something to do with the way so many people for a century had come here to rest and find some spiritual peace in their busy lives.

The calm atmosphere was definitely aided a lot by the three people that could frequently be found there - the shogi player Hifumi Togo who was usually practicing by herself in one of the front pews, the acolyte Sumire Yoshizawa that would cheerfully practice her magic and stretch in the courtyard when there wasn’t much else going on, and the priest Takuto Maruki, who had a kind smile and seemed to feel the pain of whoever came to him for help while doing all he could to comfort them and assist them.

“You guys are okay!” chirped Sumire as Haru walked through the door with Akira and Futaba (and Morgana, sitting on Akira’s shoulder.) She ran over, and Futaba’s cheeks turned bright pink as she stepped behind her foster brother. Whether it was because of her usual shyness and anxiety or because something about Sumire made her nervous in general, Haru couldn’t tell and didn’t want to pry to ask.

Akira gave his usual confident and easy smile as he nodded; “Of course we are. A few royal guards couldn’t keep us down. Everyone else is still at the tavern… we didn’t think it was a very good idea to go around travelling as a big group when we just pulled off a heist.”

Normally, Haru would be a little worried about the leader spilling this information in a public place, but she knew that they could trust both of the people currently visible in the church. Hifumi was a close and trusted friend of Akira’s who already knew about their illegal activities and even helped him come up with strategies when he was stuck in a rut, and Sumire might as well have been one of them after helping Akira and Morgana steal an order of knives from a nearby blacksmith some months ago.

Apparently, Akira had asked her to officially join, but she’d declined, wanting to continue her work as an acolyte and practice her white magic more as she recovered from the loss of her twin sister. Once she was stronger both mentally and with her magic, she said, she would approach them about it.

“I knew you guys could handle it, but I was still worried,” she said with a soft sigh before turning to Haru with a bright smile. “I’m so glad you’re free now! You deserve to be able to live your life.”

The former noble let out a quiet laugh. “Thank you. I’m just relieved it’s all over.”  _ For now, _ she thought but didn’t bother to add. She didn’t want to think about the possibility that someone could catch her walking around in public and call the royal guard to drag her right back into an arranged marriage. (Or worse. Something much worse to her could happen if it was discovered she ran away voluntarily. Even just realizing that passingly was terrifying, so she tried to push it down and not dwell on it.)

“Thank you guys for coming over and letting us know you’re safe.” Sumire adjusted her robes as she took a step back. “Father Maruki isn’t around right now, he left a couple hours ago, but I’ll definitely tell him that you stopped by, I promise.”

Haru thought that was a little odd. He was rarely away from the church for very long; she suspected it brought him just as much peace as it brought everyone else, or maybe it was a sense of duty that kept him tethered to the place. Maybe it was a good thing he was taking a break for once.

“That’d be great, Sumi, thank you.” Akira must have been thinking the same thing, because within moments he added; “What’s he doing, though, just out of curiosity?”

Sumire shrugged. “He said something about having plans with someone, but I didn’t ask too much about it. I figured it’d be nice to let him have his privacy.” That was fair enough, Haru supposed. “Are you guys gonna lay low for a little while, or do you have another heist lined up already?”

Akira glanced around, and leaned a little closer to her. Haru was close enough that she could hear what he was saying. “We’re going back to the castle grounds in a day or two to look around for the prince and a specific royal guard that Haru said let her go. It didn’t seem right to just leave them to be punished by the king, so we’re going to see if they want to get out of there and go into hiding with Haru.”

“Isn’t it a little risky for you guys to be going right back? Especially Haru.” Genuine concern was both audible in Sumire’s voice and visible on her face. Haru thought it would probably be a good idea to join in then, not wanting it to seem like the decisions were all being made for her.

“I know what the risk is, but I don’t want them to get hurt because of me. I kind of feel like I have a responsibility to go back and do what I can for them.” Getting caught and getting into more trouble herself was an absolutely terrifying thought, but… that only made her think about how the guard and Goro must have been feeling. Their punishments were much more immediate, and much more guaranteed; at least she could always pass her disappearance off as being a genuine kidnapping.

“That’s really honorable of you.” The worry hadn’t disappeared from Sumire’s face, but she did give a small smile, as if she was  _ pretending _ to be reassured… or at least just trying to be supportive. “Just make sure you’re careful, okay? You can’t help  _ anybody _ if you’re dead.”

“Yeah, we know. This might be the riskiest operation we’ve been on, but it’s not the first. We’ll just carry on as carefully as we usually do.” Which isn’t as much as they could be, Haru has to admit to herself, but at least it must be reassuring to know that they haven’t gotten caught yet… and Akira’s confidence was more than a little contagious. “You know, you could come with us. Make sure we’re careful and doing our best. We’ve got plenty of room in the carriage for another.”

“My telepathy’s nowhere  _ near _ its limit when we’re off on heists,” Futaba affirmed with a nod. “We could probably even fit three or four more people in our link if we wanted to, and you’ve been making a lot of progress on your magic from what you’ve shown me.”

The knowledge that those two had a relationship outside of Futaba tagging along with Akira to the church was news to Haru, and it only made Futaba being shy around her all the more baffling.

Sumire laughed, and shook her head; “Nice try, but no thanks. I’m still trying to focus on everything here; Father Maruki needs me to help out with everything. I’m probably still not strong enough to be anything more than a liability out on the field anyway… and I don’t want my first heist to be one of the riskiest.” A pause. “Come get me again in a few months, though? Or come get me if you really need help or backup.”

This was the furthest any of these conversations had gone that Haru knew of. Maybe it really was in the cards for Sumire to join the group someday sooner rather than later.

“Yeah,” Akira said with a smile, “we’ll definitely be in touch.”

* * *

Futaba waved and went home after the trip to the church, and Akira mentioned that he was going to stop by the local doctor’s to see how Ryuji’s leg was doing. Haru didn’t want to go home just yet, but she didn’t exactly want to sit around the waiting room either; still, she had no idea where was a good idea to go right now, so she decided to tag along with Akira and wander around that street for a while. She would figure out the general layout of this city sooner or later.

It wasn’t like there was much of anywhere else she could go. She tried not to think about it, or imagine how trapped she felt now that she was thinking about how few options she had. She’d never had very many to begin with, she told herself… being unmarried and able to explore to some extent was better than being cooped up in the castle, married to someone she didn’t love and who didn’t love her.

Her mind wandered to the guard that almost caught them.

She wasn’t upset that she’d tried to get Haru to come back. That was her job, and there was so much chaos at the end of the party that she was probably fairly certain that she was in genuine danger. In fact, she was kind of honored that someone who worked for her potential father in law cared enough about her wellbeing to chase her and Ryuji, and even offer to escort them away from the castle.

Haru hoped that girl was alright, genuinely. She seemed so much more honest and earnest than the rest of the royal guard tended to be - more concerned with keeping those who trusted her safe and alive than with her paycheck and gathering gossip from the other guards and servants. Haru tried to remember if she’d seen her around anytime before the party, and couldn’t think of any meetings.

That meant that she was new; Haru had been around the castle enough times at frequent enough intervals that she liked to think she knew most of the royal guard. Honestly, she felt even more guilty about potentially getting her into trouble knowing that. Letting the future queen slip between your fingers and get dragged off to who knows where was probably a bad enough occurrence for someone who had been on the job for years; it must have been even more serious for someone who was just starting to insert themselves into life around the palace and get used to protecting everyone who lived there. It would be so much more difficult for Shido to trust her with his life when she’d made such a major “mistake.”

She thought about her eyes. Red - almost the color of wine. Kind. Intelligent.

Haru’s thoughts were interrupted when Akira stepped out of the clinic and shut the door behind him, making a small noise. “So, she said that Ryuji should be okay within the next few days, but she wants him on bed rest until then and to do some basic stretches for the next week or so after that to make sure he doesn’t push himself too hard and just get hurt all over again…” he trailed off after seeing the look on her face, pausing mid-step. “You okay?”

The noblewoman gave him the best smile she could marriage and nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. You sure everything will still be alright in a week?”

Akira looked at her, skeptical, but nodded. “I think so. The only positive thing about King Shido is that he’s always really slow to take action. Wants to be slow on everything to make sure his subjects think his every move is thought through and correct or something.” He offered his arm to her; “Shall we head back to the tavern?”

“Yeah,” Haru responded, and took it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	8. 07

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro and Makoto walk around the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lala deserves a social link

Goro, for how long he had lived in the castle, had never been to the capitol city. The town he grew up in had been a few days away by carriage, and he’d been hidden away inside the vehicle two and a half years ago when he was carted to the castle; he’d never really been given permission to wander far, most of his work being done in the castle away from prying eyes. Any nobles that needed to “disappear” would be snuck up on as they slept peacefully in the night or led away from a party.

It was a cowardly way to get around and do the king’s dirty work, but he supposed that was what it meant to be an assassin. It was… easier and quieter.

“Do you know the area very well?” he asked Makoto, who was driving; she nodded as she took a turn and the buildings around them became a little more densely packed together.

“My sister and I grew up here. She moved into the guards’ quarters at the castle when our father died and could only come see me and deliver the money she made to support me once or twice a week, so I had to do most of everything for myself and got to know the city pretty well.” A brief pause. “Well, the pretty safe and well off part of the city I lived in, but I can probably find my way around.”

Goro sighed. That wasn’t ideal, but he supposed it was better than nothing. “Where do you think the thieves would be staying, assuming they came this way.”

“That’s what we’re going to ask around for. You saw their leader, I saw one of their members, and we both know what Lady Haru looks like. I’d bet that word has spread about the kidnapping has spread by now anyway, so if we just introduce ourselves as the prince and a member of the royal guard…”

He shook his head. “No. That might get some people to tell us what’s going on easier, but anyone who would rather protect the thieves might try and sabotage our efforts to find them. Not to mention word might spread that there are allies of the king looking for them, leading them to run off.”

Makoto pulled the carriage into an alley. “This is a residential area, and most people are probably busy or out working right now, so we don’t need to worry about people walking around and noticing our carriage,” she said, taking a look around. “If we aren’t going to let people know that we’re looking for the thieves with the intent to arrest them, we need to make sure we look more like the common people.”

“Do you have any ideas?” Goro didn’t have the clothes from before he was brought to the castle anymore… and even if he did, he didn’t think it would work for talking to anyone. Looking like a street rat wasn’t going to do him any good.

“My sister still owns the house that we grew up in, and most of our belongings are still there. I almost definitely still fit in my normal clothes, and I  _ think _ you’ll be able to fit in my father’s old clothes.” She looked over at him, eyes scanning as if sizing him up. Goro didn’t know that he wanted to put on a dead man’s belongings - a dead middle aged man’s belongings at that - but he supposed there wasn’t much of a choice to be made in the matter. So he nodded.

“Let’s just hope I’m not recognizable.”

“I think we can make you blend in,” Makoto reassured, and climbed out of the carriage. She motioned for him to follow her and began walking down the street; feeling self conscious and a little afraid of what would happen to his appearance, Goro left the vehicle and trailed after her.

* * *

While the clothing kept in a dusty closet in Makoto’s home wasn’t exactly ill fitting - luckily, it seemed that her deceased father had been a similar height to the prince - it definitely wasn’t perfect. A little too loose on his slim frame; the man must have been stockier than him. Makoto messed with his hair to make him look a little less formal, but she seemed pretty uncomfortable looking at him and seemed to be averting his gaze whenever they spoke.

He didn’t exactly blame her. He didn’t think he would be very happy about being near someone wearing his mother’s clothes. He didn’t exactly  _ remember _ what sort of clothing his mother wore and he doubted it was very distinctive knowing her economic status and  _ profession _ , but still, the sentiment was there nonetheless, and so he wasn’t going to give her any trouble about it. He was grateful for her help; he would probably be avoided if he was still in his white suit.

“You don’t think the size of the clothes will give me away?” Goro asked, adjusting the jacket so that it was a little tighter around his abdomen.

“No, around here it’s pretty common for teenagers to be given their parents’ old clothes until they’re done growing and their family can afford a tailor to get them clothes in the right size.”

“I’m eighteen, Niijima.”

She shrugged. “People will probably assume you just had your last growth spurt and your family’s still saving up. You could pass for sixteen.”

He wasn’t sure whether to feel complimented or insulted by that. “Where should we start?”

Makoto pulled out her map of the city and gave it a quick look; “There’s a pretty popular tavern around here. It’s called Crossroads… a lot of people from surrounding neighborhoods end up wandering in after they finish their work every day, so we might find somebody who noticed the thieves.”

Goro nodded. “Sounds like as good a lead as any. Lead the way.”

She hummed quietly in acknowledgement, pocketed the map, and walked out of the house. Goro spared one more look around, and then followed close behind.

* * *

Crossroads didn’t occupy a very big building, and so it was a small tavern as a result. Only two tables sat on a booth in the back, and the bar itself didn’t stretch very far.

It wasn’t very populated either; a woman with short black hair was sipping at some wine in the back as she scribbled in a notebook, and another woman with long blonde hair sat across from her, shuffling a deck of what Goro could see were tarot cards. One would occasionally say something to the other; they weren’t putting any effort into hushing their voices, but they weren’t saying much of anything interesting or noteworthy.

He was a little surprised, honestly. Makoto had mentioned the place being popular, so he’d expected there to be more space to sit or at least more patrons drinking at the bar. Maybe things had changed since the last time she was around.

“We had to downsize, so they expect me to get my hands on some gossip on top of chasing actual news. I don’t think including half true stories about the royal family in a newspaper is even a good idea,” the dark haired woman complained, taking another sip of her drink. “That should be reserved for housewives talking at the well or something.”

“I can try to tell the prince’s fortune if you want,” the blonde woman replied; “it probably won’t be very accurate without him here, but it sounds like accuracy is a big concern at your paper.”

“I still want to be as accurate as I  _ can _ be.”

Goro couldn’t help but be curious as to what his fortune would be, but he didn’t especially believe in that sort of thing to begin with, and he had better things to do. He followed Makoto as she approached the bartender, a heavyset woman with a gravely voice. He thought it would probably be wise to keep quiet for now and stand to the side; if the dark haired woman in the booth was, in fact, a reporter, he figured she might be able to recognize him and that was something they were trying to avoid.

“My friend and I were just wondering if you’ve seen a couple of people around,” Makoto said, her voice a little bit awkward. She was clearly out of her element trying to get information out of people. “One of them’s a young woman, about seventeen, with a petite stature. She has light brown hair, a little poofy, and her eyes are brown…”

“You’re discussing the girl that’s supposed to marry the prince, aren’t you?” The bartender interrupted her, drying a glass in her hands as she looked the guard over. Sheepish, Makoto nodded, and the woman let out an irritated sigh. “We all know what she looks like, and we all know she’s gone missing. You aren’t gonna get much out of anyone that hasn’t already been spread around.”

A moment of quiet passed, and Goro glanced over his shoulder. The two people sitting at the booth had ceased their conversation and started listening in, so he leaned over to mutter something only Makoto could hear; “Maybe we should get going.”

She nodded. “Thank you for your time, ma’am.”

The two stepped outside, and Goro let out an annoyed sigh. “She couldn’t even tell us about the information that’s been spreading?” Makoto asked, sounding almost as irritated as the prince was; at least they were in the same boat there and he wasn’t alone in being a bit miffed.

“That just means we’ll have to be a little more direct in asking about Haru,” Goro replied, hooking his index finger around his chin thoughtfully and moving to lean against the wall. “I didn’t think that word about who she is and what she looks like would have gotten around already, but apparently I was wrong. Dodging around who we’re looking for probably seems pretty suspicious.”

“Maybe you should take over talking to people next time. You’d probably be better at it.”

Honestly, he thought that was probably true. Goro sighed quietly, and began walking down the road. “Is there anywhere else we could ask around?” he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose as if that would chase away the headache starting to bloom. 

She paused to think for a moment, and then nodded. “I’m going to walk down to the nearby church. Why don’t we split up, and you can check out some of the shops around here? The people who took her called themselves thieves, so we can probably assume that they’ve taken a couple of things.”

Goro was a little reluctant; he didn’t know the area, and Makoto did, after all. Still, he supposed he would appreciate the chance to work alone as he preferred and have a break from the person he had spent the last couple of days with. So he nodded. “Do you have another map?” he asked.

“You can just have this one,” Makoto responded, and fished it out of her pocket before handing it to him. “I know the way to the church and back, and I don’t plan on going too far out from there. Let’s just meet back up at the house when it starts getting dark.”

“That sounds fair enough.”

* * *

He had really underestimated how thoroughly frustrating it would be to walk around and ask people if they had seen the future queen, a boy with messy dark hair, or a blond runner. Two of the three were too generic to really get him anywhere.

Getting progressively angrier, Goro finally asked one shopkeep if he had seen the Phantom Thieves. “Man, I wish,” he replied, a grin on his face. “They’re doing a real good job of putting the corrupt officials in their place. Their justice is better than the royal family’s, anyway.”

He stopped asking directly about the Phantom Thieves then.

It was starting to get dark, and he hadn’t really gotten any promising leads, so he decided to walk back to the house to check with Makoto and see if she had any better luck. As he left the last of the shops - a place called Untouchables with one of the more intimidating men he’d met behind the counter - his shoulder hit someone standing just a little ways away from the door.

“Oh, I’m sor-,” he began to apologize, but cut himself off when he looked into the person’s eyes.

Dark, framed with long eyelashes.

Thoughtful, intelligence and confidence unmistakable.

More startled than they had been at the party, but unmistakable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	9. 08

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and Goro agree to have a conversation, and Makoto runs into Haru at the church.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> insert something clever here

Goro wasted little time in grabbing onto the shoulders of the thief and shoving him against the outside wall of the store. He grunted, but didn’t fight back too much, blinking twice and staring at the prince. The expression on his face and the way he carried himself were so different from the party that Goro very nearly doubted his own memory, but the intensity in his dark eyes and the look of his messy hair were much the same.

“Where is Haru?” he asked between his teeth, giving the thief a little shake. He glanced to the door of the shop and, deciding that he didn’t feel like dealing with any negative attention, dragged him a foot and a half into the nearby alleyway.

“Safe,” the thief replied, his voice infuriatingly calm as he got over the shock of running into the prince. At least he wasn’t bothering with denying Goro’s accusations; it saved a lot of time. “She’s not willing to go back to the castle, either. Like I told you before, we didn’t drag her out unwillingly. The kidnapping was her idea to make sure you don’t get the blame for it.”

“Her idea was wrong. I’m in trouble and so is the last guard that saw her running off. We’re under orders to bring her back to the castle, and I don’t intend to fail this time.”

The thief didn’t seem all that surprised by his frustrated ramblings, but he didn’t seem very concerned either. “Yeah, I figured that might be the case. We were just talking about that the other day.” He looked Goro up and down, and then tilted his head. “Can you let go of me? I can contact the other Phantom Thieves and we can talk about it. This saves us both time, too, because we were planning on infiltrating the castle again to try and talk you and the guard into leaving.”

Knowing that the thieves had the guts to even consider trying to get  _ him _ away from the castle was infuriating, but Goro fought to calm himself down and slowly released the shoulders of the thief. It would be much more convenient for him if he could find a way to capture them all at once and find Haru based on information he could force out of them.

He thought about asking the thief to meet him at the house so that he could have Makoto around and make any sort of combat easier, but Goro didn’t think it was a good idea to take his eyes off of him for even a moment. The prince crossed his arms over his chest and watched the thief carefully as he unzipped his bag.

A black cat with a white muzzle meowed furiously at him, and the thief mumbled something to him as if he could perfectly understand what the cat was trying to say. He’d heard of familiars before, but he’d never seen one or owned one, so he thought it a little odd… not odd enough to question it, though. As soon as the brief conversation was over, the cat jumped out of the thief’s bag and ran off.

“He should be back in a little while with the team’s response,” the phantom thief told him, turning back to face the prince and crossing his arms over his chest. Goro couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed that he didn’t just go to speak to the Phantom Thieves by himself, but he supposed that someone who was bold enough to break into a castle and kidnap a heavily protected noble would be stupid or careless enough to potentially lead Goro right to where his team was.

He had half a mind to follow after the familiar itself, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off of the Phantom Thief leader, either. If nothing else, it would be nice to apprehend him.

“Are we going to talk  _ here?” _

“We might as well. This part of town has a reputation, and most people won’t wander down here unless they have secrets of their own and a tendency to mind their own business.” Still, the thief glanced out the alley and had a look around. “My name is Akira, by the way. You’re Goro, right?”

He would like to call him an idiot for giving a name, but he was aware that a given name wouldn’t get him much of anywhere - a common one, at that. “Right,” the prince nodded, crimson eyes staying on Akira - observing his posture, his body language. He didn’t seem like he was too tense; like having someone intent on arresting him was an everyday occurrence.

Goro tried not to feel too offended about it. He knew that this person was either very brave, very stupid, or both; Akira was probably used to stakes like this.

“How does it feel,” Akira started to speak, his tone pleasant and relaxed in a way that almost threw Goro off when he asked, “about the fact that your father is a monster?”

He thought about lying. About defending the man, trying to keep the mask of being a respectable son on and making himself look like a good heir to his biological family’s legacy. On the other hand, he thought there might not be a point in pretending to like Shido, especially when it seemed like he ruled mostly based on fear and lies.

It would probably be a bad idea to say something against his father in public, regardless of what Akira said about the security of the place. He didn’t want what he said to reach the king’s ears; he was in more than enough trouble as it was, and he didn’t want to give Shido more reasons to want him dead.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Goro replied, his voice growing colder. “But regardless of what I think, it’s my duty as the heir to the kingdom toy to obey my father and remain loyal to his legacy so that the kingdom doesn’t fall apart.”

Akira hummed, but didn’t give much more of a response.

* * *

Haru wandered into the church alone; Hifumi wanted to play a shogi game with her, and the former noble was in need of something to do, so she didn’t see why not. She was barely a foot and a half into the building, however, when she noticed someone talking to a cheerful Sumire right in front of the altar. She didn’t think anything odd of it at first - but as she looked a little closer, she recognized the hairstyle and shape of the stranger.

It was the guard that let her and Ryuji go.

She was conflicted. On the one hand, she was grateful to the guard for letting her escape, but on the other, she couldn’t imagine why she ended up in a church in the capitol city. What if she had been sent by the king to hunt her down? Haru wanted to approach thank her, but at the same time she was… more than a little worried that this interaction had no chance to end well.

The noble felt exposed without the rest of the Phantom Thieves with her. She knew, logically, that she could probably handle herself in a fight, but that didn’t mean she had any confidence. She was the one who started training her magic skills the most recently out of all of them - raw talent didn’t always translate well to being able to fight someone with much more experience under their belt.

She didn’t realize that she’d been standing frozen at the back of the pews until she noticed that the two of them had noticed her. Sumire was still smiling, but had a look of concern that was just barely concealed; the guard, on the other hand, was clearly surprised to see her.

There were two options - she could rush out and try to lose her in the winding streets of the city, or she could walk up and try to talk to her. After trying to sort through her racing thoughts for a couple of seconds, she opted for the ladder, walking down the church’s aisle a little awkward.

“Hi, Lady Okumura,” the guard spoke up before she could have the chance to, giving a polite bow that Haru was quick to return. “My name is Makoto Niijima. I was the one that let you escape.”

“I remember you,” Haru replied, feeling a little nervous and awkward but keeping a smile - or an attempt at one - on her face. “Thank you so much for that. I’m really grateful for your help and mercy.”

She could see Makoto’s shoulders tense a little, a different sort of look showing in her eyes for just a moment - a look of guilt, or of regret. Haru’s heart fell; there was no way she was only here to check on her and make sure that she was safe, or to have a regular pilgrimage to the church. “Listen, Lady Okumura,” she started, looking and sounding genuinely reluctant. “I… I think you should be free to do as you choose and love who you love, but my… employers don’t agree. They want me to bring you back to the castle. If I don’t, I’ll get… I’ll get punished for it.”

Oh.

“I understand why you came to get me, but I really don’t think I could ever go back. I don’t just want to be a bargaining chip for the rest of my life, and I especially don’t want to have to listen to what someone as cruel as King Shido has planned for me for the rest of my life.”

This was exactly why she almost regretted her choice to run away - she didn’t want anyone else to suffer for her own decisions and her own will. At the same time, though, there wasn’t much of a point to living if she wasn’t living for herself. That sort of thought made her feel so selfish, thanks in large part to her father spending years teaching her to be a pawn in his career and life… but she couldn’t help it.

Sumire must have been feeling a little awkward in the middle of this conversation, because she took a few steps backward and checked the candles behind the altar. If nothing else, Haru was grateful that she was staying close by.

“It’s not just me that’s at risk of punishment, though,” Makoto sounded so distressed that Haru wished the ground would swallow her up so she wouldn’t have to think about or live with any of this again. “The prince is getting judged pretty harshly for apparently letting you go too. At least one of us, if not both, could get executed if we don’t bring you back.” A momentary pause. “The king takes his security and image  _ very _ seriously.”

That seemed very harsh, but very in character for someone like the king. He held onto a lot of land that was gained in wars and invasions, something that might have the people ready for a revolt at even the slightest sign of weakness… and Haru knew from hushed and sleep deprived conversations in the garden that Goro was the result of a night with a sex worker. If Shido was the kind of man to get a peasant prostitute pregnant, then she didn’t doubt he had more bastard children that could be scooped off the streets and turned into another heir.

“Miss Niijima,” said Haru, puffing her chest and holding her chin up in an attempt to look a little more confident, a little more serious. “The Phantom Thieves and I were actually talking about you and the prince the other day. We wanted to infiltrate the castle again and see if you wanted to run away and join, too. We would be safe from the king, and we could use more help.”

Silence passed between them, and Makoto could only stare at her for several seconds. Haru was ready to wait until she had an answer, but before the guard could even finish thinking on it, the church doors pushed open and Morgana ran up to her, hopping up into her arms.

“Joker ran into the prince,” the familiar told her, leaning his front paws against her shoulder in order to speak closer the noble’s ear. “He wants to meet in the alley by Untouchables.”

He wasted little time in jumping down, quickly explaining that he needed to find and tell Futaba before running off again. Haru blinked, and then grabbed onto Makoto’s hand to pull her out, repeating what Morgana told her as she tugged her out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	10. 09

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a heads up i'm going to start taking one weekend off from updates every ~4 weeks! so there will be three more sunday updates after this and then one off, then four more sundays and one off, etc.

Not all of the Thieves could make it to the meeting in the alley. Ann had been busy on a date with her girlfriend, Yusuke was working hard on a commissioned portrait of a noble, and Ryuji got a dirty look from the doctor when he tried to get up. Morgana, Futaba, Haru, and a dragged along Makoto made it to where Akira and Goro were in not much time.

The first thing that caught Haru’s eye was how disheveled Goro looked. Instead of his usual crisp, clean, and  _ princely _ attire, he wore an oversized outfit that was indicative of someone in the middle class. He also looked somewhat annoyed, but that wasn’t uncommon, especially when dealing with someone like Akira who could get rather smug and apparently went against everything the heir stood for.

Morgana was quick to leap on Akira’s shoulder, tail flicking as he watched the prince. Haru felt a fresh wave of guilt when Goro looked at her as if he was searching her face for a sign that something was wrong, something about the story about her voluntary kidnapping had been a lie. She had really thrown him under the bus in her hurry to get away.

Still, she made her decision and she was willing to live with the consequences. At least she wasn’t just leaving them without any options, she told herself.

“Lady Haru needs to come back to the castle with us,” Goro spoke, his voice calm and composed and fitting of a prince. Still, she had spent enough time with the royal family over the last couple of years that she could recognize some frustration and restraint underneath it. It was eerily reminiscent of the king; perhaps there was some of his father in Goro after all. Somehow, she doubted he would be happy to hear someone say that, so she kept her mouth shut.

“I already told Miss Niijima that I left the castle on purpose. I don’t intend to go back.” She was pleased that her voice was far firmer than she felt.

“Nothing is stopping you from lying about who took you from the castle. The king will pity you for your ideal and probably won’t even realize you gave a fake description.” He couldn’t possibly know that for sure, though, and that was something Haru was acutely aware of. 

“Instead of me going back with you, why don’t you stay here in the city with us? We’re well hidden and those who know who we are wouldn’t sell us out to the king. You would be safe, and have much more freedom.” It was what they had been planning on suggesting anyway, so she had no qualms about bringing up the suggestion herself.

“Yeah. We’ll make sure no harm can come to either of you.” Akira backed her up with a nod. “We even know of a few places where you can stay. We get along pretty well with the owners of the inn if you don’t want to stay with any of us.”

The prince scoffed, looking almost offended as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Akira. “With all due respect, you’re asking me to not only abandon my future and go into hiding for the rest of my life, but also requesting that I leave the future of the kingdom to the dogs. Without me, there isn’t an heir, and without an heir, there’s no one to take over when Shido dies.”

She knew he was bluffing, that he was as aware as Haru that there was more than likely at least one other illegitimate child of the king that could take the throne if all else failed - that Goro was expendable, and if this went wrong there was nothing really reliably keeping him alive.

Haru could get why there would be some fear there, even if he was hiding it under an irritated exterior - she understood why he didn’t want to go against what the king demanded of him. She could imagine that he was worried about needing to make drastic changes to his appearance and stay inside for the rest of his life to keep himself hidden from the king until the bitter end.

He knew more about the king and the castle than she did; he would be a much more obvious target to take out in order to prevent any information leaks.

It only made her wish he would agree to run away a little easier, honestly. She guessed that they could always just kidnap him, but… wouldn’t that make them no better than the people that they were fighting against in the first place? Resorting to holding hostages against their will until they broke enough to stop struggling sounded horrifying. She liked to think she was above torture.

“I don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing if the monarchy stopped in its tracks, though,” Akira shrugged, being much more bold than her with his choice in words as usual. “Your ancestors weren’t  _ terrible, _ but there’s still a massive power imbalance in the kingdom. The people should have more rights and more of a choice in who leads them.”

“If Shido died suddenly and left no backup plan, then there would be a power vacuum where anything can fill it, just or unjust. I am not above trying to encourage a different system and attempting to orchestrate a peaceful transition into it.” It was the first time Haru had gotten any sort of look into the hopes Goro might hold for the kingdom’s future - she had to admit, she knew that he was a better person than Shido, but she hadn’t been expecting him to have ideals that were so much better.

He’d always seemed so bitter when his father came up in conversations around the castle. She worried, frequently, if he was planning on killing the man himself out of some wish for revenge and taking power by force at a young age. Maybe that  _ was _ his initial plan, but… at least there was  _ something _ in his mind for after.

“I don’t think I can stay here, either,” Makoto spoke up, looking far more sheepish than Goro to admit it. Something about her expression seemed far more reluctant as well. “I wouldn’t just be losing my job if I were to run away from being a guard. My sister also works for the king, and… I don’t think I would ever be able to see her again, and she’s the only family I have. Not to mention, they might punish  _ her _ because of me. She’s the only family I have… I couldn’t accept that.”

Well… Haru had to admit, she understood how Makoto must have felt. Her father was the only family she had before she met the Phantom Thieves and they became her chosen family, and she was willing to sell herself into an arranged marriage for him up until recently.

If she had a good relationship with her sister - or even just a little better than Haru’s with her father - then she could understand even better the incentive there to protect her. 

“Your sister could come with us too,” was Futaba’s quick offer, but Makoto was shaking her head before the redhead even finished speaking.

“She would never go for that. She’s very serious about her job and being a provider… no matter what she needs to do to climb up the royal guard ranks.” The expression on the guard’s face was a profoundly sad one, and Haru had to wonder if  _ either _ sister was happy with their current situation.

Although she knew that some form of sadness was showing on her own face and Futaba looked more nervous than anything, the same calm and neutral expression had remained on Akira’s face throughout the entire conversation. He rarely showed any sort of emotion, but she couldn’t stop herself from wondering  _ what _ he would ever react to. (Morgana, being a cat, was  _ significantly _ harder to read.)

“We understand.” When he  _ did _ speak up, Akira wasted little time in putting on the face of a leader. That was probably the reason he was the leader. “We didn’t really expect you guys to be all gung ho about the idea right away anyway. If you ever change your minds, though, the offer remains open as long as you guys need it.”

“How can we reach you?” asked Goro - Haru was sort of surprised that he was the one asking the follow up questions, considering he was the more outwardly hostile to the idea. The surprise faded as she considered he might be looking for a way to get one of them alone to capture, though.

“Just come back to the capitol city.” Akira gestured to Futaba, who stood up a little straighter. “Oracle here has some great navigational capabilities that’ll let her sense when one of you is around, and she’ll send a few of us to talk to you.”

“Yeah!” Futaba nodded cheerfully, smiling brightly (and a little smugly.) “I’ll make sure I keep a close eye out for you guys, don’t worry.”

His face returning to a neutral expression, Goro nodded. “I suppose there’s no reason for us to continue this conversation, then. We should split for now, but I imagine we’ll be in touch.”

“It was nice meeting you again, Your Highness,” Akira replied; out of the corner of her eye, Haru noticed him adjusting his glove and then removing it. In the blink of an eye, he’d snapped his fingers and tendrils of darkness had crept from the shadows, restraining Goro and Makoto and forcing them against the brick wall of the store. “Sorry, just a precautionary measure to keep you guys from following us around. We can’t have you following us, after all.”

With that, Morgana hopped up onto Akira’s shoulders; he grabbed Futaba and Haru by their wrists and led them in a hurry out of the alleyway and back toward Leblanc. Haru looked back, feeling a little bad about leaving the prince and royal guard restrained in place; she was at least ninety percent sure that Akira would let them go as soon as they were a suitable distance away, though, so she just did her best to keep up.

“That prince,” Akira spoke as they reached the block that the tavern was on, slowing down so that they were just moving at a brisk walk. He put his glove back on, and Haru had to assume that meant that the spell was broken. There was enough of a pause that she wondered if he forgot that he was talking before, “is kind of cute.”

Morgana laughed, and Haru just blinked, a little confused. “You must be  _ really _ unconcerned for that to be your main takeaway,” the familiar told him, amused, and flicked his tail.

“Well, it’s not my  _ main _ takeaway, it’s just the observation I thought wasn’t obvious.” He opened the door and held it open; Haru and Futaba were quick to duck inside. She was a little surprised that they managed to make it back safely, honestly.

“We’re not going to give up on them, right?” Haru asked; after seeing the look on Makoto’s face, she didn’t think she  _ could _ give up on them if she tried. She couldn’t force them to accept help - but she could definitely try and guide them there as best she could.

“Of course not.” Akira walked to behind the counter, looking through the coffee beans. “We’re going to have to figure out a new way of contacting them and trying to convince them, but if something bad happened to either of them because of us, I wouldn’t be able to accept that.”

“Are you sure that we can do it?” Futaba sat in one of the booths, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head tilted. Akira shrugged.

“No, not really. it’s going to be difficult for sure if their attitudes during this conversation were anything to go by. But we can try our best.” He pulled out a jar of beans; “Either of you want coffee?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!! please kudos/leave a comment if you enjoyed!!


	11. 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More thinking and discussing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short one this week! the irregular word count was bothering me i needed to fix it (and i just needed to do a transitionary chapter. romance next week ;) )

At first, Goro was a little unsettled by the dark tendrils holding him and Makoto in place against the building. Being trapped in a strange place, restrained by someone he  _ definitely _ did not trust, was a… mildly frightening situation, to say the least, and he was a little surprised that neither of them had started panicking. Perhaps the training and threats had been good for something.

It was around two minutes of nothing by the time they were released and he stumbled back into the middle of the alley, and by then, he was more irritated than anything else. His fists clenched, he was quick in turning to the guard; she looked more troubled than anything else, but he didn’t really care that much at the moment. All he cared about was just capturing the Phantom Thieves and dragging them back to the palace with Haru. Agreements of peace and lying about their identities had been thrown out the window by their failure to cooperate (and he had a feeling they were unlikely to come along unless they were forced, anyway.)

“We aren’t going back without them,” he told Makoto, fully aware that he sounded just as irritated as he felt but not caring all that much.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice in the matter,” she replied, her voice quiet. It crossed his mind to ask if she was alright, but for the moment he just gestured for Makoto to follow him and ran off in the direction the Phantom Thieves had gone in. He knew that, with their head start, it was unlikely that he could catch them before they reached their destination, but it was worth a try.

After nearly half an hour of looking into buildings and running around the streets of the neighborhood they found themselves in, he accepted that there was no way he would find them like this and sat on a nearby bench to try and force himself to stop seething.

“I really think we should make wanted posters and have the people of the city help us,” he said, but before he was even done with his sentence Makoto was shaking her head.

“The Thieves have the support of the people in the capitol. That’s the main thing I’ve learned while we’ve been looking around.”

“If we include a reward? I’m sure my father would be more than willing to foot the bill.”

“Will that really be enough to sway the people that have been hiding them and doing business with them thus far? I’m sure they have quite the income from stealing valuables.”

He  _ really _ wanted to punch something.

“If we stick around the city for long enough, I’m sure they’ll want another meeting with us. They seemed to be under the assumption that we would go to the castle and come back.” Makoto’s suggestion made sense, and so Goro nodded and got to his feet.

“Back to the house, then?” he asked, glancing up at the sky. It was crawling into the evening, and it was getting dark; even with his powers being based in the nighttime, he didn’t want to be caught in a strange place when less savory individuals started coming out to play. She nodded, and the walk back to her neighborhood began.

There was a part of him that enjoyed the freedom that came with being out of the castle, even if temporarily. It was liberating, in a way, to not have every part of his behavior and every activity he partook in scrutinized by his father or the overbearing presence of his guards and aides. There was no one  _ forcing _ him to retire to his chambers - at home, he likely would be locked away and reading hours ago.

That part of him wanted to stay out. Wanted to never go back, even; stay here like the Phantom Thieves had suggested. He knew that the moment he decided to not be the heir to the throne anymore, though, that Shido would have a bounty on his head - and likely on the Niijima sisters’ too, for good measure. It would be irresponsible - for his own safety, for his acquaintances’ safety, for the kingdom’s future, and… for the safety of any other children that Shido might have fathered over the years.

He shuddered to think of any other child having to go through what he did. Long nights of pushing himself to the limit to try and use his powers weren’t something he would wish upon anyone else of any age, even avoiding considering the fact that he was probably the eldest of Shido’s children. No, the cons far outweighed the pros when it came to running away from his responsibilities.

“What do you think of what they offered?” Makoto asked.

He wasted little time in repeating his thought process to her - albeit a much less  _ personal _ version - and she nodded, only looking all the more troubled by the time he was done speaking. He really didn’t understand why she seemed to be having such a difficult time with this. Becoming a member of the royal guard had been a  _ choice _ for her. She knew what she was getting into when she accepted the job; she could have just left her sister to do all the work for the royal family and pursued a different career for herself.

“I don’t know. I think I kind of want to accept their offer… maybe not now, but after I’ve spoken to my sister. She deserves to know if I make a decision like that.”

“Do you think you could convince your sister to come along with you when you leave the castle behind? Because the king  _ would _ notice if I came back alone, and he  _ would _ take it out on her as a way of ‘punishing’ you.” His harsh words combined with the warning behind them made Makoto flinch, and she was quiet as she approached the house and unlocked the door. It had barely swung open when Goro hurried inside, shrugging off the jacket he wore.

“No,” Makoto responded, sounding rather miserable as she shut the door behind them and sighed. She glanced at the grandfather clock in the hallway - just after six - and then gestured for him to follow her before leading him back to the master bedroom. “Here, you can sleep here. Nobody’s touched it since my father died, so it’s less likely to bother my sister than if you looked around in her belongings.”

He had no intention of snooping around the sisters’ things, but he didn’t blame her for wanting to avoid even the possibility. She probably had less (literal) skeletons in her closet than him, but the thought of someone sleeping in his room at the castle made his skin crawl nonetheless.

“Thank you, Ms. Niijima,” he replied, his voice quiet as he gave a small, polite bow.

She nodded. “I’ll go find something to eat. I might have to go to a tavern and just order something, though. I don’t know whether there’s much of anything left in the house that hasn’t gone stale by now.” Without even giving him a chance to respond, she walked out of the room and back down the hallway. He watched her for a moment, and then closed the door with a sigh.

Goro let out a relieved sigh as he stripped out of the borrowed clothes he had been wearing before and pulled on his original princely attire. Makoto’s father’s clothes were more comfortable in the sense that the fabric wasn’t so stiff and focused on style over substance, but comfort didn’t really feel  _ right _ to him anymore. He was, strangely, more comfortable when he was wearing something cleanly pressed that he couldn’t even slouch in.

If he couldn’t have a completely stable and put together interior, at least his exterior could look regal and composed.

He thought about wandering out of the bedroom and asking about food, but the thought of interacting with someone else suddenly made all of the exhaustion of the day catch up with him. No, he was far too tired to face her yet. Maybe if he had just a few minutes to relax…

The prince hesitated for just a moment, and collapsed onto the bed. It wasn’t terribly comfortable and was more than a little dusty after what had to have been a few years of unuse, but the relief of taking weight off his legs and having a moment to rest his joins hit him like a ton of bricks anyway. He shut his eyes, just for a moment…

And when he opened his eyes again, the dimming orange light had turned into complete darkness, his head was aching dully, and he had no idea what time it was. He must have fallen asleep without meaning to. Why hadn’t Makoto woken him up?

Rubbing his eyes, he got to his feet and looked around. It didn’t take him long to find a candle and some matches - lighting it in the dark, on the other hand, was a bit more of a difficult task. He managed nonetheless, and wandered out of the bedroom.

Nothing in the kitchen. She’d said that she would get food from the tavern, so perhaps she wasn’t back yet. Checking the clock in the hall, it was just after two in the morning. She hadn’t come back yet - and at this hour, odds were she wasn’t going to.

He couldn’t help but think of the worst case scenario. She could fight and hold her own - she was a member of the royal guard, after all - but the idea of her being attacked and hurt wasn’t a scenario he was willing to allow.

Not thinking to grab anything, he rushed out of the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see goro can be nice and protected
> 
> thanks for reading! please kudos/comment if you enjoyed.


	12. 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haru and Makoto have a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let's go lesbians let's go

Haru knew it probably wasn’t a very good idea to leave Leblanc at night, especially when there were two people wandering the town looking to bring her back to the castle. As the hours ticked by, however, she came to realize there was no way she would ever be able to get to sleep - not in this state.

Insomnia was no stranger to her. It haunted her for months after her city was taken over by Shido and had come and go since. She knew how to deal with it - it would help if she got up and walked around. As Akira and Morgana snored soundly across the room, she realized that nobody would catch her leaving.

She was aware it would be a bit of a stupid decision to go out in the middle of the night with nobody aware of where she was going… but she would only take a walk to the church and back. This part of town was relatively safe, it wasn’t far, and she would be back within forty minutes. Haru shrugged on a jacket, glanced back at Akira and Morgana again, and quickly and quietly made her way out of the tavern.

It was almost eerily quiet on the streets; only a few people making noise toward the end of the street, none of the usual chatter of the town that usually persisted into the night. She wondered if she had, in fact, fallen asleep for a few minutes and the hours had gone by without her knowledge. It was a little too dark to see what time was displayed on any of the outdoor clocks. A chill was starting to develop in the air around her, a gust of wind every few seconds fluttering the fabric of her skirt. She started to walk a little faster toward her destination.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the lamps around the church were still lit, visible through the windows. The door was unlocked, so she was quick in making her way inside, the heavy door slamming closed without behind her without much input on her part. Looking at the clock just above the door told her that it was just past two in the morning; it was definitely unusual for the church to be open this late, considering it usually closed 

Haru was a little surprised to turn toward the altar and see someone sitting in the front pew to the right of the altar. She couldn’t help but freeze when they turned their head and she could recognize their face as that of one Makoto Niijima.

She thought about just turning around and running back to the tavern before she could notice her, but… no, she didn’t want to risk leading Makoto back to Leblanc and she… honestly kind of trusted the guard more than the prince. She’d seemed a little more receptive to the idea of leaving her responsibilities than Goro when they talked, but Haru didn’t want to make an assumption like that.

The former noble hesitated for a moment before slowly approaching the guard and leaning a little closer to her as soon as she got to the pew. Makoto tensed, and then looked up at her with wide eyes. There was a quiet moment between them, and then the other scooted over so that Haru could take a seat beside her. Silence washed over them for a little while, and Haru clasped her hands to quietly pray.

Once she was done and put her hands in her lap, Makoto spoke up. “Are you religious, Lady Okumura?” she asked, quiet. Haru couldn’t help but find it a little odd that she was trying so hard to keep her voice down when there was apparently nobody else in the church. She supposed, though, that the place’s atmosphere did command a certain level of consideration for noise level.

“A little,” the noble responded with a small shrug. “I stopped relying on it when my mother died. I’m still not certain if there’s something out there. It just… feels alright to cover all my bases.” A small pause. She couldn’t think of what to say. It  _ did  _ make her feel a little more secure, being in a peaceful place with Makoto still having yet to do anything to grab her. “Are you?”

“No.” Makoto smoothed out her skirt, looking down at her lap. Haru wondered if she was avoiding eye contact. “We used to come to this church, but I always found it a little boring. My mom died when I was very young, and my father only brought my sister and I once every month or so after that… and when my father died a few years ago, neither my sister nor I wanted to bother with praying. It felt like, if there was a higher power, it had failed us.”

Haru understood that feeling. She understood it very well.

“How did your mother die?” Makoto asked, a question that made Haru’s shoulders tense for a moment. “I’m sorry if that was a rude question to ask. You don’t have to answer.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. I used to live in a city on the edge of the kingdom. When Shido invaded and took it over a few years ago, my mother was shopping at the market and she was caught in the crossfire when the mages started attacking.” She had to speak about it technically. She had to avoid the lump threatening to form in her throat. “They found her a few days later, after the dust had settled.”

“Why did you agree to marry Prince Goro?”

A lot of tough questions coming from the guard, she thought, but she didn’t blame her for wanting answers. “I didn’t. Not really. My father decided that he wanted to get on the king’s good side and secure his financial future… so he started arranging for me to marry the prince to try and get some political power. I thought I’d go along with it for his sake at first, but… I guess I’m too selfish to carry through with it. I can’t imagine being married to someone for my father’s convenience.” She paused for a moment; “How did your parents die?”

“My mother got sick and my father was murdered.” Makoto didn’t go into much more detail than that, which Haru didn’t blame her for. Getting sick was pretty self explanatory and murder tended to be a more sensitive subject than war or illness or accidents. Both of them went quiet after that, simply getting used to each other’s company and taking in the atmosphere of the evening.

Faintly, Haru could hear drops of rain beginning to fall onto the roof of the church.

“You mentioned your sister when we talked in the alley. Are you close?”

“We used to be.” Makoto’s voice sounded… a little sad. “My father died just as she was becoming an adult, and I was a few years younger than her, so I guess she figured she just needed to take it upon herself to do everything on her own. She started working day and night just to keep food on the table, and when she got the opportunity to work with the royal family, she took it to try and secure a higher wage and make it so that we didn’t have to struggle anymore. She had to move away to the castle most days, though, so… we haven’t had many chances to spend time together since?”

“Is that why you decided to become a part of the royal guard?” Haru was aware that she was being a little nosy, and that Makoto might get annoyed with her for it… but she was genuinely curious. She wanted to know more about this girl; know more about who she was, about her life.

“Sort of. I wanted to lighten the burden on my sister’s shoulders, and… I guess I kind of grew to admire her work, protecting the kingdom’s future. I didn’t realize until you ran away that… the king is actually a pretty horrible person.” Makoto shifted, and leaned against the back of the pew, looking up at the dome ceiling. “I don’t blame you for wanting to run away. Honestly. I wish I didn’t have to bring you back to the life you were trying to escape.”

“You don’t have to.” Without thinking, Haru put a hand against her cheek to make her look at her. “You don’t have to go back to working with the royal family, either. You can stay here, in the city. Like we said before, we have an entire network of people who will help hide you. Shop owners, tavern and inn owners… you’ll be safe, I promise.”

Makoto shook her head. “I don’t know if I can guarantee my sister’s safety, though. If I leave and the king figures out it was on purpose, she’ll get hurt. She’ll be the one to suffer.”

It was infuriating, Haru thought, how utterly impossible it was to cleanly cut ties with the palace after getting so thoroughly entangled within it. She should have spoken up the first time her father said she would need to get married. She should have run away sooner; she shouldn’t have let things get this far. There was little point in regretting her choices, she knew that much, but she couldn’t help it.

She had been so desperate to help her father, make him even a fraction of the kind and loving man she remembered from her childhood, that she’d forgotten herself and her own needs in the process. It took Akira and the Phantom Thieves noticing her and befriending her to snap her out of it, and by then she had already been a year into the process.

Haru realized how long she had held her hand against Makoto’s cheek and withdrew it, a soft blush appearing across her features. She looked down at her lap.

“Sometimes,” she spoke softly, fully aware that Makoto probably wouldn’t agree with her; fully aware that what she was about to say was selfish. “You need to do what  _ you _ have to in order to survive and live a bearable life. Even if that means other people might get hurt. If you’re miserable staying alive and you feel like you’re having a hard time coping with dealing with yourself… then why even try?”

“But -”

“You can’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm, Makoto. You can put others first and be selfless, but when you’re sacrificing everything that makes you  _ you, _ there’s only so far you can go before you crash and burn.” A small pause. “I’d do anything for the Phantom Thieves, of course, but… I can’t throw myself away to help someone who wouldn’t do the same.”

Makoto was quiet then; Haru could practically hear the gears turning in her head before she finally talked again. “If I end up staying here with the Phantom Thieves, you need to promise me we can do anything possible to save my sister. I’ve turned a blind eye to the king’s crimes for a long time, and I can acknowledge that. But my sister isn’t irredeemable. She’s not a bad person.”

Haru smiled. “To be honest, we already promised to make sure you and Goro were safe. We’ll have to check with Akira about it, but I don’t have any qualms with adding your sister to the list.”

Instead of giving a verbal response, Makoto wrapped her arms around Haru in a tight hug. The former noble tensed for a moment, unsure how to respond to the sudden physical contact; it didn’t take her long, however, to relax and return the hug.

“Let’s stay here for a while,” Haru suggested, glancing at one of the stained glass windows above them. She could see rain streaming down outside. “We’ll catch a cold if we run out in this.”

Makoto nodded. “The priest said he would be back soon. I don’t think he’ll mind if we stick around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading! please kudos/comment if you enjoyed.


End file.
